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The artistic and administrative team at the South Florida Symphony are definitely not afraid to tackle a challenge. Case in point: Last season, the symphony collaborated with the famed Martha Graham Dance Co. on a critically-acclaimed world premiere ballet by South Florida composer Tom Hormel, “The Legend of Bird Mountain.”

“I think opera as we currently know it is on its way out,” said R.B. Schlather. “I personally don’t like sitting in theaters where there are thousands of people and you’re far away from the stage. That’s not satisfying.”

Is opera in America on its last breath? For decades, the proverbial canary in the coalmine has been singing warnings of aging audiences and certainly the Great Recession of 2008 dealt a serious blow to companies that relied on gifts from wealthy benefactors and their investments. The music world was shocked when the venerable New York City Opera, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s “People’s Opera,” unexpectedly closed last year.

All season long, opera companies around the world have celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi. Florida Grand Opera pays tribute to the Italian composer with its own grand production of Verdi’s first major success, “Nabucco.”

There was a time when the “rock stars” of the opera world were “castrati,” male singers with powerful, soaring soprano voices, the result of pre-pubescent castration. These singers were revered and many amassed great wealth and fame. Fortunately, tastes changed and the practice fell out of favor by the late 19th century.

South Florida boasts one of the most vibrant regional theater scenes in the country. This winter and spring, audiences can enjoy classic American plays at Palm Beach Dramaworks, hit musicals at Actors Playhouse, Maltz and The Wick, LGBT-themed works at Island City Stage and world premieres by local playwrights at Zoetic Stage.

For the past 25 years or so, it’s been in vogue for daring theater and opera directors to yank the works of the masters from the settings they were intended and explore their eternal truths in new contexts.

The tragic 1998 murder of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard has inspired a play and film adaptation, “The Laramie Project,” numerous literary works and, most importantly, a hate crimes bill passed by Congress a decade later. Shepard’s story is now being told on the opera stage.

By its very nature, opera is melodramatic and perfectly suited to fanciful tales of powerful pharaohs and quixotic Chinese princesses. When most people think of opera, they conjure up stereotypical images of Valkyries in winged helmets with busty breastplates or massive statues come to life to torment the sinful.

“Florencia en al Amazonas,” currently being presented by Florida Grand Opera at the Arsht Center in Miami, is inspired by the writings of celebrated Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez. The challenge for any librettist is taking great literature and effectively adapting the story for the stage while retaining the integrity and artisty of the author’s original words.